Garden Suggestions 
uenes 
The Ve6 etable Garden 
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CONDUCTED BY F. F. ROCKWELL 
Author of Home Vegetable Gardening and Gardening 
Indoors and Under Glass 
M AY is the month for spring house¬ 
cleaning out-of-doors; that is, May 
as the magazines figure time, though in re¬ 
ality it is still April. And now you may 
forget the garden for a few afternoons 
and turn your attention to the cleaning up 
and repairing of the grounds. It is time 
to prune late-flowering shrubs. The rea¬ 
son you should so distinguish between the 
early-flowering and the late-flowering 
sorts, i. e., those which bloom after mid¬ 
summer, is that the former bear their 
flowers on wood of the previous season’s 
growth, and if you prune anything but 
dead branches at this time, 
you will be cutting off 
buds. The late-flowering 
shrubs, however, such as 
hydrangeas, flower o n 
new wood, and no matter 
how much you cut them 
now, you will not be sac¬ 
rificing any blooms, as the 
flowering growth has not 
yet been made. Shrubs 
that are planted in mass 
will not require much 
pruning. Where individ¬ 
ual specimens are grown, 
however, you should aim 
to keep them pruned to a 
good shape. In all cases 
any wood which has be¬ 
come broken or winter- 
killed should be cut away 
cleanly. The same is true 
of hardy vines. 
Put your trees into good condition. 
Very frequently some of the lower 
branches will either be dead or almost en¬ 
tirely denuded of foliage, and thus spoil 
the looks of the tree. Cut them off close 
to the trunk, and if they are over an inch 
and a half or two inches in diameter, 
paint the stumps over carefully with coal- 
tar. 
Also spray your fruit trees and take care 
to get the spray on the trees at the proper 
time. The first spray should be given to 
apples just before the blossoms open, while 
the new leaves are still coming out. The 
Hedges and Trees 
R EPAIR the hedges. 
Two or three bad From the time 
spots in a hedge will make 
the whole look disreputa¬ 
ble and shabby. Do not wait until the 
later part of the season to do any repair¬ 
ing of this sort, but attend to it at once, in 
order that your patch-work will not show 
through the whole summer. Never at¬ 
tempt to fix a hedge by stuffing dead 
branches, prunings, etc., into a bad spot; 
this only makes the trouble spread, as these 
will kill the live growth with which they 
come in contact. Cut the dead spot our 
clean, removing dead branches and plants 
if there are any, and if necessary put in 
new ones. This may often be avoided, 
however, by bending a live branch or two 
from each side of the bad spot across it, 
and fastening the branches down so that 
the lateral shoots, which will then be 
forced into extra growth, will fill the gap. 
the first seedlings appear, the surface of the soil must be well stirred 
up to keep the weeds from getting a start 
second, which is even more important, just 
after the petals of the blossoms fall. Use 
Bordeaux mixture with lead arsenate. 
More definite instruction in regard to how 
to mix and use these sprays for both apples 
and other fruit trees may be found in the 
spraying article in this number. 
“Edge” the drives and walks, but do not 
make the very common mistake of cutting 
back the sod for several inches in order to 
get a good, straight edge. This leaves an 
earth wall two to four inches high exposed 
to the drying influences of sun and wind, 
and ready to be broken down every time 
anyone steps on the edge of it or attempts 
to go over it with the wheelbarrow. You 
should cut back just as little as possible, 
and then with the back of a spade pound 
S TART tender vegeta¬ 
bles in the frame. 
Everybody sets out some 
plants of the early vegeta¬ 
bles, such as cabbage, let¬ 
tuce, beets and so forth, 
while tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are 
always started under glass, but compara¬ 
tively few people as yet start their musk- 
melons, cucumbers, lima beans and similar 
things of a tender nature in this way, al¬ 
though the advantage gained is just as 
great. Secure a number of the cheap 
paper pots which may now be had; fill 
these with a suitable soil, very light and 
very rich, and you can have the things 
well forwarded by the time it is warm 
enough to set them out-of-doors, and they 
will not require transplanting. Simply put 
pot and all in the soil when you get ready 
to plant. 
Keep ahead of the weeds and get your 
planting done on schedule time, or as near 
to it as is humanly possible. 
the edge down so that the grass comes 
directly to the path or roadway and does 
not terminate in a bank several inches high. 
If you cannot get all the holes out in this' 
way, fill them in with new sod. 
Grapevines 
L OOK after your grapevines. These 
should have been carefully pruned 
early in the spring, and you will now, if 
you are to reap the full benefit of that 
care, have to see to it that the buds which 
start from its many dormant eyes are not 
allowed to grow and 
waste the strength which 
should be going into the 
fruiting canes that you 
have planned to secure. If 
your vines have been trou¬ 
bled with “black rot,” 
which causes serious in¬ 
jury to some varieties, 
spray with Bordeaux 
mixture as soon as the 
third leaf appears on the 
new shoots, again just 
after the blossoming and 
before the fruit sets, and 
two or three times more at 
intervals of about twelve 
days. Apply the spray, if 
possible, just before a 
rain. 
Starting Tender 
Vegetables 
(399) 
